This post was written by Michael Evers, a Junior at DePaul seeking a degree in Political Science. Michael is serving in his second year as an Interfaith Scholar and currently holds the position of President of DePaul Hillel.
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What does it mean to be a socially responsible leader? More so, what does it mean for me in my own life and my own leadership and how do I apply the principles I conjure up to those I serve? These will be the guiding questions for this essay and, I should mention here, serve as a model for, what I believe, to be socially responsible leadership. Continue reading →
This post was written by Bridget Liddell, a senior at DePaul finishing her degree in Theater Arts and Philosophy. Bridget is also completing her second year as an Interfaith Scholar and identifies as an Independent Earth Spiritualist.
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I was unsure at first, wondering if it would be offensive to participate in International Scarves in Solidarity. After checking in with a friend comforted some fears about upsetting someone, I, not Muslim, covered my hair on April 21st, the day set aside to demonstrate support for a woman’s right to choose what she will wear.
I emphasize that everything I write has no intention of making any generalizing claims, but rather speaks to how I processed my experience. Continue reading →
This article was written by Peter Dziedzic, a sophomore at DePaul, who is pursuing a double major in Religious Studies and English. Peter is the co-President of DePaul Interfaith and member of the Executive Committee of the Better Together Campaign at DePaul University. Follow Peter on Twitter.
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Last month, an act of religious intolerance and spiritual ignorance scarred the progress that had been made in interfaith relations across this nation and across the world. Terry Jones, the Florida pastor condemned for making a push to establish “Burn a Koran Day” on the 9th anniversary of 9/11 last year, went ahead as planned and burned a Qur’an, offering a message that is thrown only in dark ages and wearisome times – we will not tolerate that which we do not know, and we will not welcome those who are not like us. Continue reading →
Today’s post is by Nic Cable, a senior at Depaul, pursuing a double major in Religious Studies and Peac, Justice, and Conflict Studies. He is serving his second year as an Interfaith Scholar at DePaul University and is the Director of the Better Together Campaign at this institution.
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Next Wednesday night, students will be gathering to commemorate the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that killed, injured, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti.
We come together for many different reasons and from many walks of life. However, amidst all of our differences, we all share a common belief that human beings deserve to live not in poverty, hunger, and homelessness, but with the appropriate amenities to live healthy and dignified lives. Continue reading →
Today’s post is by Nic Cable, a senior at Depaul, pursuing a double major in Religious Studies and Peac, Justice, and Conflict Studies. He is serving his second year as an Interfaith Scholar at DePaul University and is the Director of the Better Together Campaign at this institution.
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The room was tense as we waited for the moment everyone felt differently about. Some of us were apprehensive, some slightly fearful. Others were intrigued and some still were a little excited. Ms. Sasamori entered the room at a slow, yet steady pace. Her face, I noticed immediately, was scarred from something long ago. Her stature no more than five feet tall. A smile never left her face as she entered bowing before us and saying in a louder voice than I had imagined: “Good Morning!”
This salutation set the tone of her two hour long talk with us about her experiences before, during, and after surviving the dropping of the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima, Japan. Twenty young students, sat silently glued to every word, story, and emotion that fell from the mouth of this elderly survivor nearing her eighties. I thought about the emotions that were stirring in the hearts of my fellow students. Continue reading →
This article was written by Peter Dziedzic, a sophomore at DePaul, who is pursuing a double major in Religious Studies and English. Peter is the co-President of DePaul Interfaith and member of the Executive Committee of the Better Together Campaign at DePaul University.
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The words that constantly reverberate through the energy-rattled and ticked corners of my brain, fresh from D.C. and IFYC’s Interfaith Leadership Institute, come from President Barack Obama’s address at Cairo University, “Faith should bring us together…Around the world, we can turn dialogue into interfaith service, so bridges between people can lead to action.”
I can think of no better call to action than the words above, and no better distillation of energy than the experience described below. Continue reading →
Today’s post is by Nic Cable, a senior at Depaul, pursuing a double major in Religious Studies and Peac, Justice, and Conflict Studies. He is serving his second year as an Interfaith Scholar at DePaul University and is the Director of the Better Together Campaign at this institution.
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My name is Nic Cable and I am fellow with the Interfaith Youth Core’s Fellows Alliance. I wanted to share with you what that means for both its implications on DePaul University and the greater world. This historic university is nationally recognized for its extensive interfaith work in dialogue and service. As an IFYC fellow, I am charged with raising this amazing interfaith work to the next level through building sustainable structures and programs that will foster an environment for interfaith cooperation on this campus. Continue reading →
I have become increasingly involved in interfaith work and during that progression I have found myself asking: Where is this work leading? When I was younger, I was under the impression that interfaith only meant dialogue between religious groups, and usually between Christians, Muslims, and Jews at that. I thought it to be important, but never really understood its purpose. Now with my work as a DePaul Interfaith Scholar and my increased involvement in the interfaith movement, I have come to a greater understanding of why such work is necessary. I learned that dialogue is not the only form of interfaith, that interfaith is not just found in the US, and that this movement can and will be crucial in constructing the framework for which the world will resolve its conflicts. Continue reading →
Well, it’s that time again. The end of the year, finals crunch time, the last IFR. I find it funny to be writing once more in this periodical at this time because at the end of last year (the start of my time as an interfaith scholar) I wrote an article entitled “The Feeling of a Comfortable Shoe” to show why I find interfaith dialogue to be so engaging and fruitful. I reflected on my enjoyment of why I love dialogue – the opportunity and challenges of asking hard questions, the appeal of the frank and honest discussion, and the company – and how the website soulpancake.com manages to capture all of that on its website. Continue reading →
Over the past few decades, America has clearly undergone a religious and cultural redefinition. This is evident everywhere we look; there are cultural centers for many countries in nearly every major city, as well as, diverse religious communities adjacent to each other all across this nation. Although America is the most ideologically diverse country in the world, it is far from the most pluralistic. Pluralism is a term Diana L. Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Director of The Pluralism Project at Harvard University, describes in four parts: Continue reading →
